Moira Kinross (Earth-616)
, , , , | Relatives = Lord Alasdhair Kinross (ancestor, deceased); Queen Elizabeth II (distant relative); Lord Kinross (father, deceased); Joseph MacTaggert (ex-husband, deceased); Kevin MacTaggert (son); | Universe = Earth-TRN748 | BaseOfOperations = Krakoa, Pacific Ocean; formerly Mutant Research Center, Muir Island, Scotland | Gender = Female | Height = 5'7" | Weight = 135 lbs | Eyes = Brown | Hair = Brown | UnusualFeatures = | Citizenship = Scottish, Krakoan | MaritalStatus = Widowed | Occupation = Geneticist; former student | Education = Ph.D. in genetics | Origin = Mutant | PlaceOfBirth = Kinross Estate, Scotland | Creators = Chris Claremont; Dave Cockrum | First = X-Men #96 | Quotation = Well, here’s the thing, Charles... it’s not a dream if it’s real. | Speaker = Moira MacTaggert | QuoteSource = Powers of X Vol 1 1 | HistoryText = Moira's First to Third Lives Moira Kinross was born to powerful Scots nobleman Lord Kinross. When she was thirteen years old, Moira's mutant powers activated, but they didn't manifest, since her gift was that of reincarnation. She led a simple life, marrying a man named Kenneth Cowan and having three children: twin boys Callum and Dean, and a girl named Abigail. Kenneth died when Moira was sixty-eight years old, and she passed away from congestive heart failure at age seventy-four, ending her first life. Moira's second life began in utero, having already become fully sentient and possessing a perfect recollection of her prior life. This allowed Moira to appear intellectually gifted, and she was pushed in the direction of academia. She didn't fight her parents' wishes, since she intended to understand her true nature. When she was forty-four years old, Moira learned of Charles Xavier and deduced that she was a mutant; however, she died on a plane crash when she tried to fly to the United States of America to meet him. In her third life, Moira dove into anthropology and genetics. She actively sought out Charles Xavier when they both attended Oxford University, but she became reluctant to approach him because she found him arrogant and selfish. Due to her distaste for her powers, Moira devoted her life to developing a mutant cure. She succeeded, but caught the attention of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who attacked her laboratory. The precognitive mutant Destiny warned Moira against following the same path in her next lives, since she would be able to stop her again. She additionally revealed to Moira that she would only live a total of ten lives; eleven at the most. Afterwards, Destiny had Pyro burn Moira to death. Moira's Fourth to Eighth Lives After being reborn to her fourth life, Moira threw herself into fully understanding the human-mutant dilemma. Becoming open to the potential benefits of mutants, she gave Charles Xavier a second look and they fell in love. They married and established Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. She stood by Xavier's side for years until they both died at the hands of the mutant-hunting Sentinels. In her fifth life, Moira decided aggression was the only acceptable response to the violent tendencies of humankind. She ran away from home at a young age and sought Xavier a decade before they were supposed to meet. Moira shared the knowledge of her past lives and it radicalized him. Instead of a school for mutants, Charles created an army and isolated it from the rest of the world in a nation called Faraway. It was eventually targeted by Sentinels and Moira fell into a coma due to injury. She died a year later during a genocide. Her sixth life continued one thousand years in the future, where mutants had lost the war against technology and were nearly extinct, except for Moira X and Wolverine, who were preserved in the personal zoo of the Librarian. The Librarian visited the preserve, revealing to Moira and Wolverine that what mutants had been fighting all this time was not humanity (with the creation of Nimrod and the Sentinels), but the birth of a new species: the so-called Homo novissima, humans who had been merged with machines in order to be absorbed by the Phalanx on the day of the "Ascension." The Ascension was to happen the next day. Moira discovered that neither man nor machines were the enemy, but man’s ability to control its own evolution and the surrounding environment. She then let Wolverine kill her in order to reincarnate and use this knowledge in her next life. Because of the events of her previous lives, Moira spent her seventh life eradicating the bloodline of the Sentinels' creator, Bolivar Trask; however, Sentinels were still invented in this world, and Moira was killed after discovering a Master Mold Sentinel factory. This experience radicalized her. In her eighth life, Moira embraced the philosophy of mutant terrorist Magneto and helped him conquer America and establish the House of M. But during the War of M, Magneto was defeated and killed afterwards by the combined might of Earth's human heroes and mutants while Moira was imprisoned. She was later killed in a failed prison escape. Moira's Ninth Life In her ninth life, Moira abandoned the hope that either Xavier or Magneto would save mutantkind. With few lives left, Moira awakened Apocalypse who slaughtered both Xavier and Magneto. Apocalypse and Moira later formed the X-Men, and waged the endless Human-Machine-Mutant conflict against humankind and their machine allies that came to be dubbed the "Apocalypse War," which eventually gave rise to the Man-Machine Supremacy of Nimrod. A Nimrod was an intelligent and adaptable Sentinel, virtually indestructible. Moira and Apocalypse formulated a plan to eliminate Nimrod, but during an assassination attempt on Apocalypse, Moira was brutally injured before she and Apocalypse could destroy Nimrod, so she was put into stasis. Moira remained in suspended animation for sixteen years, until the X-Men consisting of Apocalypse, Wolverine, Rasputin IV, an unnamed Cardinal, North, Cypher possessed by Krakoa, and Xorn attempted to acquire the information surrounding Nimrod's origin: the exact date and circumstances of Nimrod's creation. With the rest of the team long dead, Wolverine delivered Moira with all the information she needed to reset her lifetime, this time with the exact knowledge of where and when to intervene in order to stop Nimrod from ever being created. Moira was then killed by Wolverine himself, allowing Moira to reincarnate. After all the lives lived and lost, Moira decided to approach her tenth life differently. Moira's Tenth Life In her tenth and tentatively last life, Moira decided to return to Charles Xavier, met him again at Oxford, and allowed him to read her mind to learn everything her lives had entailed. In this new life, Moira desired to work together with Professor X and Magneto to avoid mutants always losing as she saw in her past timelines. Moira was dating Joseph MacTaggert at the time, but soon separated from him to see Charles exclusively, and their romance lasted for years. Eventually they became engaged, but Joseph got into Charles' head and convinced him that he needed to serve in the armed forces before being a man worthy of Moira. She promised to wait for Charles until he was released from military service, but Joe weaseled his way back into Moira's heart once Charles was absent. Xavier received a letter from Moira breaking off their engagement without explanation and stating that she was returning to Scotland. Moira and Joe were soon married. Joseph MacTaggert proved to be a brutal husband. Moira eventually fled from him to New York City, but Joe tracked her down, beat her and assaulted her sexually, causing her to be hospitalized for a week and leaving her pregnant. From then on, Moira lived apart from her husband, although he refused to grant her a divorce, and she kept the fact that he had a son secret from him for twenty years. Genetic Scientist Moira MacTaggert led a brilliant career as one of the world's leading geneticists, earning a Nobel Prize for her work. She founded a Mutant Research Center on Muir Island off the coast of Scotland. She eventually renewed contact with Xavier during a period he spent in England working on a degree in psychiatry. Xavier and MacTaggert discussed the possibility of establishing a school for training superhuman mutants in the use of their powers. Eventually, MacTaggert became Xavier's "silent partner" in founding this school, which trained the team of mutant adventurers known as the X-Men. When Moira's son began to manifest destructive mutant powers, she attempted to cure him, but her efforts were in vain, and she was forced to keep him imprisoned at her Mutant Research Center. Moira took as her ward the orphaned Scottish girl Rahne Sinclair, who would herself demonstrate mutant powers in years to come. Moira considered Rahne to be her own daughter, as much as if she was biologically so. Deadly Genesis During the early years of Xavier's Academy, Moira founded and ran a secondary facility not far from the Xavier School, in which she had her own students - gathered together youths who she took out of bad situations and adopted as her wards, training them in their abilities without the highly militant regimen of Charles' X-Men. When Krakoa captured the original X-Men, it was Moira's children whom Charles went to first - not the second team of X-Men, as it was originally believed - putting them through the psionic equivalent of boot camp and allowing them to believe they were being trained over months as X-Men. Charles took them from Moira's care immediately. Moira's children were apparently all killed, and Xavier suppressed even the memory of them from his own students, to keep them from going back to save them. Significant portions of Moira's history were apparently blocked from her memory by Charles Xavier. Only Moira's project tapes, one made directly after the event, before Xavier could suppress the memories, and an abandoned research center remained as clues. Moira MacTaggert finally made her presence known to the X-Men when she arrived at their doorstep claiming to be their new housekeeper. The X-Men soon learned her true profession and visited her Muir Isle research center. Moira fell in love with Sean Cassidy, the X-Man known as the Banshee, and their relationship persisted. Proteus Moira's son, Kevin, who was code-named "Mutant X" but called himself Proteus, escaped from confinement at Muir Isle and began using his powers to possess the bodies of others and drain their life energies and to warp people's perceptions of reality to terrorize the Scottish countryside. The X-Men attempted to stop Proteus, and Moira warned Joseph MacTaggert about him. (At this point it had been twenty years since she had left him.) Proteus took possession of his father's body, ravaging it, and attempted to kill his mother. Instead, however, Proteus was himself apparently destroyed by the X-Man Colossus. Joseph MacTaggert died as a result of being possessed by Proteus. New Mutants Sometime afterward, Moira discovered that Rahne Sinclair had the mutant ability to transform herself into a wolf-like form. Dr. MacTaggert brought Sinclair to Xavier and persuaded him to establish a new team of superhuman mutant trainees who became known as the New Mutants. In her laboratory on Muir Island, Moira was assisted by Multiple Man. She took in Tom Corsi and Sharon Friedlander, following their transformational encounter with the Demon Bear. Moira also became acquainted with another of Xavier's former lovers, Gabrielle Haller, and learned that Charles had an unstable mutant son of his own, David. Moira treated the powerful but seemingly autistic David Haller for months before finally convincing Gabby to let Xavier see his son and help with the case. After Xavier arrived, though, David attacked Moira and Rahne, catapulting them into his warring mindscape, and rendering their bodies comatose. After they were rescued by Xavier and the New Mutants, Moira resumed her work to help David. When David's Jack Wayne personality resurfaced, Moira and Rahne were again put at risk, but the New Mutants arrived and contained the threat, placing David back into Moira's care once more. Moira hoped that as David aged, he would be able to reintegrate his different personalities into a whole. Muir Island X-Men Following the Mutant Massacre, several Morlocks came to Muir Isle to recuperate - including Callisto, who became Moira's bodyguard. It also became home to many of the children known as warpies. Moira and Sean also rescued Polaris, whose powers were in flux and granting her increased size and invulnerability. Moira began testing Lorna to uncover why her powers were acting this way, but she remained unaware that another side-effect of these powers was to amplify negative emotions such as anger and hatred in those around Lorna. When Muir Island came under attack from the Reavers and Banshee was shot, Moira organised a team to defend the island, including Polaris, Tom Corsi, Sharon Friendlander, Amanda Sefton, and Alysande Stuart. She had Healer bring back Banshee and immediately asked for him to rejoin the battle. She later had Legion use Cerebro to try and locate the X-Men, but this allowed the Shadow King to possess him. By possessing Legion, whose Jack Wayne personality was already using Polaris' powers to corrupt everyone on Muir Island, the Shadow King was able to take control of even more people. With all of Muir Island possessed by the Shadow King, Moira was the leader, presiding over gladiatorial matches in an area called the Arena. When Banshee returned with Xavier and the X-Men, the Shadow King made Moira shoot him. She was finally freed from the Shadow King's control by Forge. Legacy Virus and the Fake Death As the first human to contract the Legacy Virus, Moira was one of many frantically working on a cure, even to the point of self-quarantining herself at one stage. When the Muir Island facility was destroyed by Mystique and her Brotherhood of Mutants, Moira had discovered the cure to the new strain of the Legacy Virus that Mystique had created; one that only infected humans. Moira was heavily injured in the attack, and used a Shi'ar golem to fake her death, having it appear to cling on to life long enough to survive a transatlantic flight to transfer that information to Charles, then die in his arms. Krakoa Faking her death allowed Moira and Xavier to run some preliminary testing with resurrection protocols later perfected by the birth of Proteus and the creation of the Five. Most mutants didn't know that Moira was still alive as she was hiding out in a Krakoa blackout zone called Moira's No-Place. Moira and Charles Xavier also tasked several technopath mutants (such as Cypher and Sage) with creating a system called "Sleeping Giant" to monitor for Nimrod technological thresholds being reached and/or the attempted creation of a "Mother Mold": a replicating, adaptive Sentinel factory that was self-aware and capable of creating Master Molds. Xavier and Magneto would eventually task the X-Men with destroying the Mother Mold and preventing the creation of Nimrod. Prior to the first Krakoan Quiet Council meeting, Professor X and Magneto revealed to Moira the council members. Moira was suspicious about Emma Frost not having named her extra Council seat yet, while Mystique agreed to join the council on the condition that they bring Destiny back to life, but Moira was opposed to having precognitive mutants like Destiny on Krakoa, since they could end up revealing Moira's ultimate secret: that despite all her striving, over ten different lifetimes, mutants had always lost. | Powers = Rewound Reincarnation: Moira is reincarnated in a new timeline upon death. From her second life onward, she could recollect all the memories she experienced in her previous lifetimes from as early as in utero. Undetectability: Moira's status as a mutant is invisible to mutant sensors and detectors. Mutant detectors will see her as a baseline human. | Abilities = Genius Intelligence: Dr. Moira MacTaggert was one of the world's leading geneticists and possessed special expertise in the study of superhumanly powerful mutants. Military Training: Moira MacTaggert received military training in the British Armed Forces during her seventh life. | Strength = Moira MacTaggert possessed the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise. | Weaknesses = Limited Reincarnations: Moira's reincarnation cycle is finite. When she encountered Destiny during her third life, she was informed that she would live tentatively only ten lives, or eleven at most. Additionally, if Moira were to die before her mutant power manifested at the age of thirteen, the reincarnation cycle would end. | Equipment = | Transportation = | Weapons = | Trivia = * Moira was the butt of a recurring joke about her coffee being too bad-tasting. Even Xavier mocked her about it sometimes. * David Haller, the son of Xavier, called her the woman who caused him pain while he was a patient on Muir Island and lacked control of his power. | Links = }} Category:Kinross Family Category:Doctors Category:Nobel Prizes Category:Oxford University Student Category:Formerly Deceased Category:Reincarnation Category:Post-M-Day Mutants (Unregistered) Category:Characters Displaced to Earth-616